Volume 6 | Issue 1 | April - May
2012 |
Song of the Greatest Wish
Ahmad Shamlou
Ah, if liberty sang a song
little
as the larynx of a bird
nowhere would there remain a tumbling wall.
It would not take years
to learn
that every ruin signifies man's absence
for the presence of man
is restoration and renewal.
Like a wound
a lifelong
bleeding
like a wound
a lifelong
with pain beating
eyes opening on the world in a cry
in rancor disappearing
thus was the great absence
thus was the story of the ruin.
Ah, if liberty sang a song
little
littler even than the larynx of a bird.
Translated by: A. Shamlu & A. Karimi-Hakkak
Ahmad Shamlou - Ahmad Shamlou (December 12, 1925 - July 23, 2000)is Iran's most celebrated contemporary poet. Shamlou was prominent
both as a great historical literary figure and as a major poet. He was a journalist,
a playwright, a translator and a broadcaster. His historical contribution to
the reformation of Persian poetry has been the subject of many books. His poetry
has been translated into several languages, however it remains a relatively
undiscovered treasure in the West. He was a humanist and a socially minded intellectual
who has skillfully woven personal love and affection together with his social
attitudes. He lived always with hope and passion for justice.
